Dudu.car won the inaugural Glory/I didn't know Carrara could do that - challenge. Congrats. 

As such, the winner has the distinct privilege of choosing the next theme which is:

OCEANS AND SEAS (sounds like a deep subject)

So, the interpretation is totally up to you, underwater, on water, overwater. 

The challenge ends next Saturday, March, 21. The winner will be picked by Kix and myself and gets the GLORY of naming the next challenge.

Godspeed, may the wind be at your back.

••• WINNERS •••

0oseven has the best ocean and wins this:

Steve K. has a roiling sea and wins:

MDO2010 killed it with:

headwax makes me feel like I have to go to a confessional or an art history class:

But, the grand winner is Tim_A for generation of original content for the challenge and having fun while trying new things:

Tim_A, please post back in this thread with the subject of the next challenge!

I have no idea about what I'll do with this subject - oceans/sea. 

Just working out a water texture on a plane primitive. The texture is nothing but cellular shaders with a little color thrown in. The environment is the Carrara's Realistic Sky doubled up with a spherical .jpg background. 

Life would be so much more rewarding if I had more coffee breaks. :D

Here a test of the plugin “Foot Print” of Sparrowhawkes.

A cylinder passing in lower part of a vertex plane and a personal texture for the sea.

Tsunami ?

@ DUDU.car  –  Ha! I'm thinking Moses when I see the current image.

What is "Moses" ?

OK, it's Moïse in french...

Why not ?

Coffee Break time.

Extending the water with the Replicator in Seamless mode. (Fractals that I used with the Cellular shaders don't show tiling)

And Changing the time of day:

"Heading Out: Force 8"

@Steve K, Nice!

Ok, a little time to play after work - finally. 

Here is the render straight from Carrara: 

And, here is the render plus a little post work. While all of this can be done in Carrara, for me, it just makes more sense to leave some of the variables for post-production. (That's the business-side of my 3D head screaming, "Time is money!")

You can download the file here >  "Oil Rig and Ocean" (I've substituted the models in this image with some that I can distribute - the background .jpg is also out because it ballooned the file to 197M - hey, it was 20,000x10,000px, ok?) Edit 2015-13-17: Also, I just realized that I used Digital Carver's Guild Shader Ops which has an Invert function that I used on the Cellular items in the shader. If you don't have that the sea should still look ok but it will be different. 

 Ok, first coffee break of the day. Working on a mash-up of the Carrara stock landscapes, Dream islands and Rock. I'm using the the same ocean (you can download it above) as before but am now telling a completely different narrative. 

I've never used the Millennium Dragon for anything until now. Had to change the textures though – too comic-booky. 

He, nice work Steve & Mark !

The scene with the dragon seems interresting too, take more coffee, Mark !

Finished during my lunch break. For the surf, I used Digital Carver's Guild excellent (Shader Ops) Terrain Tools which includes a Surf and Intersect feature. You can make materials automatically conform to coastal lines and add the noise of your choice to create the variation. 

I'd mentioned using the ocean I used was from the image above this one with the oil rig. (download the image and play) However, I really increased the both the transparency and absorption distance.

For this top-down shot, I used an HDRI map in the background that had a bunch of white towards the top so the water would reflect better. 

Very nice work with a lot of details and great textures !

But, poor little dragon...

@Steve K, Nice!

Thanks, Mark.  And thanks to PhilW for "Realistic Seas for Carrara", 3Djoji for the "Katherina Boat", drawbridgep for the "Lighthouse" (exported from Bryce), and Marlin Studios for "Rustic Exterior Surfaces" used to texture the lighthouse in Carrara.

OK, this subject has allowed me to avoid doing mundane chores at work like, working.

I've hobbled together a scene ON the water with oil rig. I've done an ABOVE the water with the dragon. Now it's time to go UNDER the water. 

I took the stock Rock landscape that was in my dragon scene and submerged it. I'm using the same water texture with a replicator in Auto mode. I've reduced the 'Y' dimension of the plane primitive by half so I can create something more like sinusoidal waves - you know, up and down and up and down. Just getting this in place now. I think I'll have time to finish this up later tonight but for now, time to leave the office.

And, here's the final result.  I had to really bump up the HDRI background to get the waves to show well. In fact I punched it further in Photoshop. 

I created a download file of this scene but swapped out the assets for legal reasons. So, the render of the water looks better in my opinion in the uploaded one. (reminder that the water texture uses Digital Carver's Guild Shader Ops Invert function - if you don't have it the waves will look different but probably ok)

So, this is a scene where I use the Realistic Sky settings in a completely different way in order to get the deep water effect – that fading into the distance thing. I've got some junk floating in the water. This is done in Photoshop. However, for an animation, I'd totally do this with a particle generator. 

You can get the Carrara file here: Underwater Scene

And if you want to see the stuff I do in a Photoshop file, here you go: Underwater Photoshop

Another little Carrara Ocean doodle...

Mark - Looks very good, very convincing.  I've always thought that animated underwater scenes could give me a leg up in the 48 Hour film contest, vs. all the other teams who are live action.  They might have trouble shooting a sub underwater in the two day contest ... B-}

@Steve K. – that's awesome. You can always zoom into a still image and add some light variations and particles in AE too. Video/film is all about trickery I'm sure you know!

BTW, don't ask me how I know this, but Carrara has been used in a number of bumpers for the NFL Super Bowl event. 

Very original, this cube !

A more technical question: why this kind of shadow on the ground plane ?

The shadow is a result of the translucency and transparency of the shaders - combined with their absorption. I didn't engage caustics. The spot light has a high resolution soft shadow. Is that what you were meaning? 

May be.

I think it's a general issue in Carrara, as in this exemple, the cube seams empty and then, the shadows are very "clear" after passing trough the water.

I see what you mean. Yes, this is one of Carrara's quirks. There is no ability to selectively turn off shadow catching on a per-object basis. It would need to be an adjustment on the density/strength of the shadow which is controlled by the light – and that is a balancing act with the other objects in the scene. 

In this case, a work-around in the composition would be warranted such as adding a sea floor (since shadow would be obscured by the absorption) or a container to hold the cube. Alternatively, a two render process could be done, hiding the boat and shark in one instance, and then combine/composite the renders in Photoshop. 

There are some other 3D packages I use that let you 'tag' behaviors to individually turn them off. But, the price of those software packages is slightly higher then Carrara. ;-)

Ah thanks, but we can live with that !

And thank you for the files with the submarine.

This is just a quick WIP from lunchtime (okay, slightly extended lunch ;)). The bottle is just a vertex cylinder, squeezed in the right places and thickness added. Inside is an ocean primitive, converted to vertex and scaled down. I used boolean operators to fit it into the bottle. The base is just a box model. There is no stopper on the bottle. I think you may see where this is going...

Only default glass/wood/water shaders at the mo.

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

No post work - created and rendered entirely with Carrara. 

I have used Brian Orca's "Ocean Plugin" but similar results would be achieved with Carrara's native Ocean.

The mesh is textured using a terraine  shader.

The model is the WW1 USS Minnesota  from from Chris Schell available for free [ thanks Chris] and is pretty amazing in its detail - takes 2/3 minutes to load !

I think I downloaded from Renderosity but this is his email taken from the file   black_knights-templar@hotmail.com

Oh yes I have used an image for the backdrop for this but using the realistic sky can add some really nice effects.

ALL in Carrara !!!     

Strong 0oseven. Excellent work. 

BTW, did you know that you can use Realistic Skies and a background image at the same time? It's a great way to integrate both and control environmentals – perfect for softening the harsh horizon lines that photo backdrops create.

But, I think you probably knew that. 

Mark

No I didn't know that so look forward to trying it . Thanks for the tip

You can see how this ocean "animates " in my video posted on CarraraTor's forum. Just some experiments composited.

http://www.bond3d.byethost18.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=dd5b498bc82a176fe9d6b71485174be5&topic=235.msg1376;topicseen#new

Just thought I'd post something.

 This is a project I started a long time ago but never finished.

Sweet Kix. I love the water depth and the stone.  But I love the Buck Roger's-ish rocket even more. :D

Not much of time to create something new (I'm drowned in an ocean of work).

However, I getting out two images from my film in progress, to take part.

INSIDE and OUTSIDE.

Fun stuff. And not a life preserver in sight!

And it also proves my decision to never wear a magenta undergarment on a boat at sea. 

Some of them will reappear… on another planet !

The magenta is not made in AE but it is the color of the rising sun in the fog.

It's a sequence wich must be calibrated at the final assembly.

DUDU.car won the "'Tis for the GLORY #1" last week and is as proud as a politician with a multi-million dollar campaign fund. 

You can be that blissful too. 

Kix and I don't judge until sometime late Saturday - and maybe even Sunday because our personal lives are out of control. 

But you can't win if you don't enter. Be Bold!

Just look at what DUDU won – it's on his entry, check it out:

What can you say but, "Wooooooowza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hi all!

I saw Mark's post in the Carrara forum over at DAZ3D and thought I'd swing by and take a look.

Here's a quick classic sunset image.  Top image is the raw Carrara render, bottom one is the same with a little bit of post-work.  I've got another one cooking but not sure if I'll get it done.

DUDU.car - can I ask how you got that water foam effect along the front edge of the water?  

0oseven has some water spraying up over the front (prow? aft? stern? these are all boat terms, right? :) ) of his ship as well. Both are very cool effects and I have had an idea for an image I've wanted to do for ages that I could use them in but I have no idea how to do them in Carrara - easy enough to add or enhance in post-work but it would be nice to know.

Thanks,

Mark (a different Mark, obviously ;))

Nice MDO2010. I like the contrast-y one for sure. 

the water in this is just 100 percent reflection with a bump map, no fancy stuff like refraction, and 100 percent opaque (from present carrara challenge) painted in the waves near the rock shoreline, looks okay on left but bit trashy on the right

Ok, here's something I posted in my gallery a long time ago.

And another (from the sky planets tutorial).

And an experiment I did a long time ago to get water with depth.

And, another project I just barely started.  The image on the left is a painting I saw in a restaurant and I liked it so I thought I'd try to make my own version.  Again, I've just barely started this one. 

@ Mark: I am very proud like a politician, but more honest…

Very beautiful price, thank you!

@MDO: For my 3D special effects, I use “Combustion 2008” of Autodesk, it included “Particles Illusion” and works well with Targa seq. in 32 bits.

Basic water is made with animated metaballs.

Beautiful work each one !

Mark (a different Mark, obviously ;))

My name is Marc too...

Mark (a different Mark, obviously ;))

My name is Marc too...

So maybe we are all related and simply had unimaginative parents?

I'm not that happy with the water shader, and the composition still needs more work, but this is as much as I had time for.

@ Mark B; I'm a convinced atheist, but I'm convinced that we are all of the same family: the “Carrara' ists” !

@ Tim: push the alpha channel of the blobs at 50 % minimum !

Thanks Dudu. It's probably too late for the deadline, but I let the render run overnight anyway (it still needs more tweaking, but for two lunchtimes and an evening, I'm not too unhappy with it)